Page 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

D amian

My head may be swimming with losses, swirling with questions that can never be answered, but my body is single-minded. My phallus is hard as an iron gladius , pointing at Maya beneath these soft pants.

I want her. Have wanted her since she first laid hands on me to correct my form. No. Before that.

But I’ve been with her night and day for weeks. I know how she thinks and how much she’s sacrificed. I know her heart. My feelings for her are more than want. They’ve burrowed deep into my chest and have doubled and tripled and become desire, affection, connection.

My fingers clutch her hair as I pull her closer. It feels as though it’s this I’ve waited millennia for, and I don’t want to let her go. Our lips clash as we come together with a hunger that’s been screaming to be fed since she walked into my room and stared at my nude body when I was still using my cane.

We’re on our sides, facing each other, and I span her bottom with my palm and crush her against my erection until she gasps.

“I want you, Maya.”

Her only response is a soft hum as she palms one of my ass cheeks to press herself even closer and grinds harder against me.

I suck her bottom lip into my mouth, then grip it with gentle teeth and shake my head. She gazes at me, pupils wide in the shadowy night, looking at me in complete submission. Waiting for my next move.

“I know some of your secrets,” I whisper against her lips.

She’s still in a daze, too lust-drunk to speak, her leg snaking around mine to pull me closer. No words are needed—the invitation is clear as her thighs part beneath me.

“You like this, my dominance?” Though I know the answer, I nip along her jawline as I wait for her response.

“Mmm.” Her voice is dreamy.

“Like me in charge?”

I roll on my back, carrying her with me until she’s lying on top of me, legs splayed open, knees stabbing into the mattress, her warm cunnus riding my hardness.

“Yesss.”

The woman in charge of a gym full of muscular males is so soft tonight. So quiet as she gives me her one-word answers.

“But there’s something you like even more than that. No?”

She nods, then shakes her head, then wiggles to rearrange herself on top of me so she can ride me harder.

“Eh, Domina ?” I accentuate the word, cupping her hips to help her writhe against me to get more of the pressure she needs.

Her eyes flare wide as her mouth pops open.

“I know your secret, yes?”

She looks embarrassed, and for the first time since our kiss began, she stops moving, stilling completely as she barely breathes.

“Maya liked it when her big…” I lift my pelvis and press against the juncture of her thighs until she gasps. “Strong…” Aligning our mouths, I barge my tongue between her lips just long enough to assert my dominance. “Gladiator…” I nip her bottom lip. “Bent his knee to her.”

Guilt flares across her face, laced with sadness. But I don’t want my woman sad. No, I want her dripping with desire and am willing to do whatever it takes to make her desperate for me, as I’ve been desperate for her every waking hour of the day since we met.

“Hmm?”

After rolling her off me onto the middle of the bed, I slip to the floor in the pose I know makes her mouth so dry she needs to swallow and look away. Like a predatory animal, I’ve watched her for weeks. I know her reveals as well as I know that when an opponent digs his toes into the sand, he’s ready to attack.

Kneeling, I bow my shoulders along with my head, breaking eye contact as I murmur, “ Domina. ”

I don’t move. Barely breathe. I simply wait for her to come out of her trance and say something.

Time ticks by for so long I finally give in and say, “Hmm, Domina ? What do you want from your gladiator?”

I’m not sure what I expected. Perhaps an order to fuck her or a command to lick between her legs. What I never expected was a moan so low and deep and feral it’s like a lightning strike to my phallus, causing it to quiver and drool with the desire to mount her.

Still, I wait without moving until finally the bed shifts and I picture her walking on her knees to the edge near me. Even when her soft palm cups my cheek, I do not lift my head, do not look at her, do not stop playing the role of slave to her role as Domina .

When she lifts my chin to look at her, gone is the embarrassed woman of moments ago. The daughter who twists herself in knots to please her father is nowhere to be found. The gymnasium owner who keeps her fighters in line with soft directions and suggestions is no longer here.

No. This is the woman I knew lived beneath Maya’s soft skin and coltish ways. This? This is the gladiatrix she’s hidden—even from herself—most of her life.

“What do I want from you, gladiator? I want you to kiss my ankle bone.”

She sits on the edge of the bed and lifts her delicate foot into my line of sight.

“I want you to kiss and lick your way up my leg until I’m blind from lust.”

Her words stir my desire. This is a woman in her full sexual power. The way she seemed to run from her own cravings, even her own well-being, made me wonder if she would ever find this part of herself.

“I don’t want to see that handsome head bent again unless I command it.”

Immediately, I comply, lifting my head and stabbing her with a meaningful stare so she knows I’m following her orders.

“Unless…” she wiggles her foot in front of me, wordlessly reminding me to get to work, “that head is bent, and your chestnut curls are bobbing as you tongue between my legs until I scream your name.”